NEWS

27/07/17

Domino seeks radio plugger

Domino is looking for a new radio plugger to join its in house promo team. The successful applicant will work within Domino’s current radio structure and will have an extensive knowledge of all aspects of UK radio. He or she will need established relationships at radio and a proven track record of working successful releases.

The ideal candidate will be articulate, persuasive, knowledgeable, sociable, a frequent gig goer and music lover.

14/07/17

Domino is seeking a confident individual to oversee digital account relationships and strategy, based in the London office. The position will lead key partnerships and activity with digital music and video service providers (including Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, Vevo) across the UK and international markets, excluding North America. The role will collaborate with internal teams including Global Marketing, Project Management and Promo across all artist campaigns.

Core activities: • Lead and develop excellent relationships (label relations, editorial, marketing) across all digital accounts, with the ultimate aim of driving and maximising opportunities for our artists and catalogue. • In partnership with Marketing and Project Management teams: crystallise artist marketing plans and objectives into actionable and innovative campaigns, from pre-announcement to post album release. • Drive revenue growth and market share across all services through promotional innovation and playlist placement. • Develop an ever-evolving, in-depth knowledge of key accounts and platforms to inform artist and label best practice around release / streaming strategies and marketing activations. Communicate these updates, trends, opportunities and recommendations across the global Domino teams. • Lead the analysis and evaluation of streaming consumption data, proactively sharing campaign-focused updates and opportunities. • Generate and develop internal reporting and forecasting by artist / DSP to identify trends and build future recommendations.

The successful candidate will have the following attributes: • Digital account management experience required, with strong digital marketing and operations skills preferable. • Strong and extensive existing relationships with digital partners. • A working knowledge of and passion for digital technology, including digital music and video platforms, content management platforms and emerging technology trends. • Professional written and verbal communication / interpersonal skills. • Excellent negotiation and collaborative skills. • An analytical and data-driven mindset. • The ability to plan and deliver on tight deadlines with an exceptional attention to detail. • Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Microsoft Excel.

The applicant must demonstrate a command of digital commercial models and ability to adapt to shifts across the global marketplace. The ideal candidate is very familiar with Domino's output, aware of its history and possesses a passion to plug and promote our amazing musical repertoire across the digital services.

To Apply: Please send a covering letter stating how you meet the requirements, along with your CV to digitaljob@dominorecordco.com by 11th August 2017.

Over the course of their lush, strange album “Althaea”, London duo Trailer Trash Tracys condense a number of disparate styles into music that thrillingly broaches the void between figuration and abstraction. While undeniably beautiful and quite often infectious in parts, this is certainly not pop music by any traditional definition; rather, it appeals to the more intuitive of mind and wild at heart. More than simply becoming a philosophical exercise however, the result is their most ambitious and idiosyncratic body of work to date, one which operates at the very limits of what pop music can be.

Their debut, “Ester”, released in 2012, manifested the band’s approach to making music as a fine balance between chaos and order, laying out a dense and dreamlike ecosystem of Sufi poetry, Solfeggio scales and, floating above it all, Susanne Aztoria’s otherworldly yet emotionally charged vocals. Early singles such as “Strangling Good Guys” and “You Wish You Were Red” proved to be outliers – rather than simply making lo-fi dream pop, the band were instead aiming for something far more subconscious and esoteric.

With “Althaea”, the band continue their investigations into the farther flung reaches of pop music, with stunning results. Spanning 10 deeply esoteric tracks, “Althaea” sees the band drift further afield from traditional song structures to create a new aural lexicon of their own, one as influenced by Filipino carnival music and Latin rhythms as it was by Japanese tropical music from the 80s. Even at their most outwardly pop – the pristine “Eden Machine” for instance, or the swooning “Kalesa”, there is a baroque splendour, and heightened sensuality. The interplay of light and dark, the foreign and the familiar, brings forth an album with manifold pleasures, one which rewards repeated listening and further exploration.

Watch the video for new single “Eden Machine” below aalongside the trailer for the short film of Althaea - as premiered last week at the Whirled Cinema in Brixton.

Bright Phoebus, Lal and Mike Waterson’s 1972 folk-noir masterpiece, has long been recognised as one of British music's legendary lost records. Following the parting of ways of The Watersons and freed from the strictures of folk orthodoxy, Lal and Mike Waterson’s love of words allowed them to serve the needs of their songs in ways that weren’t possible when singing already written songs.

Featuring performances from Lal, Mike and Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, amongst others, the album is now recognised as a forward-thinking benchmark for the genre. Fans include Arcade Fire, Stephen Malkmus, Billy Bragg, Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley – the latter two performed the record themselves in 2013 on the Bright Phoebus Revisited tour.

Domino are pleased to reissue Bright Phoebus – Songs By Lal And Mike Watersonon 4th August, this will be the first time since its release the album will be widely available. Additionally under the supervision of David Suff (Topic/Fledg'ling) and Marry Waterson (daughter of Lal), the album has been remastered from the original tapes.

Alongside the reissue of the original album, there will be a deluxe version containing 12 demos for the album, themselves tinged with their own mythology and previously unreleased. The standard single-disc CD and LP editions replicate the original artwork with lyrics; the deluxe editions of both are double-disc and contain sleeve notes by Pete Paphides.

The origins of Bright Phoebus started in 1971, only a few years after the split of The Watersons whose three albums had a profound effect on the folk world. Following the split, and independently of each other, Mike and Lal had started writing their own songs; after Lal moved back to Hull; they started to cultivate these ideas together.

Not long after, Martin Carthy was visiting for a show, "We did Hull Art School or something, and then the next morning we went round to visit Lal, and she had all these songs. We sat there listening to them and… now, I knew Lal wrote songs but I had never heard any of them prior to this point. It was extraordinary.” Convinced that these songs needed to be heard by the wider world, Martin alerted Steeleye Span bandmate and former Fairport Convention bassist Ashley Hutchings to their existence. “I was instantly in tune with what I heard,” remembered Ashley, “I found an empathy with the songs, and I really would have fought off anyone to play bass on them.”

Ashley got to work; he contacted Bill Leader and set the whole thing up, along with Richard Thompson and Martin Carthy. All Lal and Mike Waterson had to do was allow themselves to be swept along by the collective will of everyone who had either heard or heard about their songs. And when, at the very end of 1971, it emerged that a homesick Norma Waterson would be returning to join them, the heavens looked to be aligning as never before.

Recorded in a week in the basement of Cecil Sharp House, Mike recalled “Lal and I dreamed our way through the recordings. It was magic.” Marry, who was eight at the time, remembered her father George describing the sessions as “a great big party”, people just wandered in. Tim Hart and Maddy Prior are on a few tracks because they happened to walk through the door, so they were lassoed in to do some vocals. One poor sod came in to deliver a package and we said, ‘Right! You’re in! And we stuck some words in front of him and put him in the chorus! He sang away, thank you very much, and then he left!’”

Despite the anticipation for a new ‘Watersons’ record, the release of Bright Phoebus was viewed with suspicion from the conservative folk community and shortly after, Bill Leader’s company went bankrupt and the initial pressing of 2000 LPS soon fell out of print. Since then, the album has become legend, its scarcity not hindering generations of music fans falling for its beguiling atmosphere. Sadly Lal – who passed away from lung cancer in 1998 - never got to see Bright Phoebus receive a full re-evaluation. Mike Waterson did, at least, get to enjoy some of backdated acclaim before his death in 2011. But he remained dogged in his belief that none of that mattered. “You do what you do,” he insisted. “And nothing is right to them, and everything’s right to you. Who are you making the record for? *You.* If fans like your record, then wonderful. If they don’t, well you’ve made it anyway. Because you love the songs.”

The Kills – Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince – will release the Echo Home – Non-Electric EPdigitally on June 2nd, with a limited edition 10” vinyl release available for pre-order today.

Both the physical and digital versions of the Echo Home – Non-Electric EP will feature audio from a stripped down session the band captured recently at Electric Lady Studios in New York. Alongside “Echo Home”, the EP features Ash & Ice track “That Love”, a cover of Rihanna’s “Desperado” (which the band originally played as part of a Sirius XMU session), and the song “Wait”, off the band’s first ever release, Black Rooster EP, which celebrates it’s 15 year anniversary on May 28th.

The Black Rooster EP was originally released on Dim Mak in 2002 and was the start of what’s been an incredible career for Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince of The Kills.

With five full-length albums (the most recent being 2016’s Ash & Ice), four EPs, a documentary, and countless live shows under their belt, the passion and fire they continue to bring to every recording and performance is extraordinary.

In their 15th year as a band, The Kills have been looking back and celebrating with a string of anniversary shows and retrospective features, and now this re-recording of “Wait”, one of the first Kills songs ever released. Steve Aoki, owner of Dim Mak and another artist who has proven a career with similar staying power, recently had some words to share on the release of Black Rooster:

"Many moons ago, back in 2002, I had to make a decision whether to pursue a Ph.D. Program or continue with my label Dim Mak & after hearing a demo from The Kills and becoming the first American label to release their EP Black Rooster, I knew what path I was going to choose. They took me under their wing and I hit the road with them as their tour manager, merch guy, driver (we all took turns) and label. I’ll never forget that and love Jamie and Alison forever. Thank you for believing in lil me when not many people gave two shits about Dim Mak and what we were doing. Ride or Die.” – STEVE AOKI

Peter Perrett - former frontman of The Only Ones - releases his debut solo album How The West Was Wonon June 30th through Domino.

Perrett, whose incisive songcraft and sardonic drawl made him one of the most distinctive voices of the Seventies hasn’t released any music for 20 years. Bearing in mind his most famous song began “I always flirt with death” (‘Another Girl, Another Planet’), this is one comeback that nobody saw coming.

In the hands of certain songwriters, a story of resurrection and redemption might ring a little hollow, but when the songwriter is Peter Perrett, the usual rules have never applied.

Perrett makes each song on How The West Was Won sound natural and effortless, as though he were continuing a briefly interrupted conversation rather than picking up the threads of a solo career that faltered two decades ago. He claims to have barely touched a guitar in the decade between The One’s 1996 album Woke Up Sticky and the 2007 reunion of The Only Ones; with Perrett, a hiatus could so easily turn into a hibernation. Yet Perrett’s familiar voice sounds like it simply stepped out of the room for a few minutes and popped back in again.

Backed by his sons - Jamie and Peter Jr. on lead guitar and bass respectively - and produced by Chris Kimsey (The Rolling Stones), Peter’s intuitive feel for words; his flair for idiosyncratic metaphors and his deadpan wit are all still as sharp as ever.

As demonstrated perfectly by the title track and album opener which Perrett shares today. It finds him railing against American imperialism and celebrity culture. The video is directed by Focus Creeps (Arctic Monkeys/King Krule) and features Peter’s band with whom he recorded the album

The songs on How The West Was Won examine complex emotional terrain and extreme human behaviour, shot through as always with wry self-analysis. In a sense the album is a Perrett family affair: there are love songs (‘An Epic Story’, ‘C Voyeurger’) from Peter to his wife of 47 years Zena. On ‘Something In My Brain’, Perrett discusses good choices, bad choices and ultimately the only choices that will guarantee survival. There are also songs where Perrett opens his curtains and stares out into a much-changed world (‘Man Of Extremes’, ‘Sweet Endeavour’).

How The West Was Won finds Perrett with energy in his blood, rediscovering the importance of rock’n’roll. Having turned 65 over the weekend, he has a fire burning inside him again, and a determination not to blow what could be his last chance.

Tracklisting:

How The West Was Won

An Epic Story

Hard To Say No

Troika

Living In My Head

Man Of Extremes

Sweet Endeavour

C Voyeurger

Something In My Brain

Take Me Home

How The West Was Won is available to pre-order on deluxe LP (coloured vinyl, gatefold sleeve, booklet and black polylined sleeve), standard vinyl (gatefold sleeve, booklet and black polylined sleeve), CD (gatefold wallet sleeve, booklet) and digital.

Additionally, the Dom Mart edition of the deluxe LP features a signed print – limited to 250 copies.

16/03/17

Platinum Tips + Ice Cream(scenes from the water park) is new from Royal Trux. The songs were written over a span of time as wide as eagle’s wings - but the recordings are new, live, unrehearsed and were presented in real time to a few thousand people in California and NYC. Performance art? Yes! But only because, unlike so many other aural “content providers,” Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema are true artists writing their own futures into the present. This was, and will always be, Royal Trux.

This new/“live”/old song/new performance album is yet another chapter in one of the best books out there. Release #647, corresponding to the Cali penal code stating that Prostitution is against the law. Just a reminder so that they didn’t forget.

It’s been a minute since Royal Trux went about making a record in 1-2 days, but they got that system on lock, and once again we see them setting parameters and adhering to them for maxx impact. Platinum Tips + Ice Cream was made in two days…one in Cali and one in NYC. The hold up came when listening back to the “live” qualities, which had been compromised the “AI” of modern, presumptuous (read: “spellcheck”) sound gear. Going back to undo the “smart changes” was tedious, yet imperative - bringing the actual experience and qualities of the performance, the rawness that could be felt and heard LIVE, to a finished form. These recordings conjure the early feral spirit of the band devouring the sophisticated sound of the later years and coughing up a motherfucking hairball of sound.

Royal Trux has always played with the idea of “expectation” like it was a new toy at Christmas, and year in and year out wiped it out like the face of an old teddy bear. For them, a touchdown was best achieved in reverse, via counter-intelligent means. It is fucking INSANE to hear how much that is still the case. This isn’t a butterfly mounted in amber; this is the sound of life….people getting through their set by any means necessary. Thoughts are flying in a million different directions, but staying with the plan is the number one rule. As the rhythm punches, the scabrous tone of Jennifer’s vox is matched only by Neil’s harsh, stinging guitar volleys – and the mad filters passing through the Bass Station. A personal playlist of hits rolls out – and not all rockers, but some slower jams and moments of deep heavy. But no “Back to School”?!? Well, that’s why there are more Trux shows coming up. And like they say, every night is gonna be a great night.

Wrapped up in a Truxian collage scrapping together the crazy quilt of time in their Royal-iverse, which in the light of this reunion is now folding back over itself, Plantinum Tips + Ice Cream collects 12 Royal Trux non-sequiturs in tribute not only to the past but the unending nature of the future.

With Best Troubador, Bonnie 'Prince Billy pays homage to a long-time and forever hero, the late Merle Haggard. A singer who, some 25 years previously, first performed in public by playing a Merle Haggard song, Bonny has often cited Merle's work in performance, on records and in conversation with anyone who was around, even talking to Merle himself for Filter magazine in 2009.

Merle's body of work was considered by Bonny for a record such as this for some time, but his passing in April of 2016 almost put a stop to it. The goal was to participate in the handing forward of the songs of a living legend, as Merle had done so many times in his own career. Writing for Juan and Only in 2012, Bonnie put it this way:

"Merle Haggard is a channeler who has paid ample tribute to those that came before him. He has demonstrated explicitly and implicitly his standing on the shoulders of Tommy Duncan/Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodgers, Floyd Tillman, Lefty Frizzell and many others. There are songs in his catalogue that seep solidly into the headspace of Kentuckians who grew up when I did, and beyond through his vast influence on the George Straits, Dwight Yoakams, Alan Jacksons, John Andersons, Toby Keiths, and too many others. He is not the original, but he may be the most significant junction."

With Merle gone, some of the impetus of the project was in peril. A plan to make the album in Nashville studios was abandoned. The songs still called to be played again, however - and so sessions were endeavored at home, capturing feeling, memory and new expression in familiar confines with the full-hearted playing and singing of the Bonafide United Musicians: Van Campbell, Nuala Kennedy, Danny Kiley, Drew Miller, Cheyenne Mize and Chris Rodahoffer, with special guests Mary Feiock, Emmett Kelly, A.J. Roach and Matt Sweeney.

The songs sung on Best Troubador are pulled from all over - from Haggard's 3rd album in 1967 through to his 47th in 2011 - but this is no simple hits compilation. Capable only of occupying a

shared space between himself and Merle Haggard, Bonny chose personal favorites, singing the songs he wanted to sing, to find Merle and himself together in the music. Only two of Hag's thirty-eight (!) country number ones are included, and only two others that charted at all. Seven of the sixteen songs are from his later period, after his long run at the top of the country charts had ended, but before encroaching mortality could finally cease the singular and indefatigable creativity of Merle Haggard.

Best Troubador flips through his song book, landing on pages unmoored from their time and located anew. Moving from 1978 to 1969 to 2003 to 1981 allows the album to circle Haggard's music in a simulation of thought and memory, slipping around from spot to spot as if they were discrete impressions, unknown but knowable yet. Dedicated to new life and old, Best Troubadoris wistful and bittersweet and no lament at all but a tribute instead, for the triumph of a life spent in unending pursuit of the goal: new and expressive music, as our inspirations and heroes once sang it.

Excited about Best Troubador and just can't wait until May? Well, boy, do we have a surprise for you! Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is joined by frequent collaborator Oscar Parsons in a virtual reality video for Merle Haggard's classic "Mama Tried’. Presented in glorious 360 degrees of virtual reality, watch Bonnie 'Prince' Billy ride the wave of the future! Headset viewing is exclusive to the Vimeo app on your smartphone! However, monoscopic 360° playback (without a headset) can occur on the Vimeo site or embedded for desktop browsers and android mobile browsers HERE.

Real Estate have shared “Stained Glass,” their second track from the forthcoming In Mind out March 17. Last week the band posted a silent clip of the video featuring guitar tabs and keyboard parts, encouraging fans to create their own instrumental interpretations of the song before it became available to the public. Today, they’re pleased to share the full version of “Stained Glass” along with the original tutorial video. This is the second tutorial video release for Real Estate, following up on the fan favorite tutorial for “Crime” from their 2014 release Atlas.

Frontman Martin Courtney also recently sat down with NPR Music's Bob Boilen for a standalone episode of All Songs Considered, discussing everything from the new album's Abbey Road influences, the origin of "Darling," to his recent fatherhood. Listen here.

Real Estate kick off an extensive North American headline tour next month. They've also added a second Brooklyn Steel show by popular demand and will make stops at SXSW and Coachella. Full dates below. More SXSW events to be announced soon.

In Mind is available on CD, LP and digitally. An exclusive limited edition deluxe LP (very few copies left!) featuring heavyweight colored vinyl, gold foil imprinted packaging (pictured below), and a slipmat, is available to pre-order from Domino Mart. All pre-orders from Domino Mart and iTunes pre-orders will come with an instant download of “Darling” & “Stained Glass.”

Alex G is pleased to announce his new album, Rocket, is set for a May 19th, 2017 release.

Rocket is the Philadelphia-based artist’s eighth full-length release—an assured statement that follows a slate of humble masterpieces, many of them self-recorded and self-released, stretching from 2010’s RACE to his 2015 Domino debut, Beach Music. Rocket’s sessions began shortly after Beach Music’s ended, with Alex tracking songs at home, by himself and with friends, in the gaps between a hectic 2015 and 2016 touring schedule. Rocket was mixed by Jacob Portrait (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Bass Drum of Death), who also lent his hand to Beach Music, giving the album a fine-tuning that retains the homespun personality of earlier efforts.

Alex G will be playing a special album release show in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday May 18th. The show will be at The Park Church Co-Op, and tickets go on sale this Friday here. Also announcing today is an all-ages hometown Rocket show on July 8th at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, PA. Tickets go on sale this Friday here. Both shows will feature special guests.